Case Mod - In Progress First casemod: Project ROG Meets Lian Li - Lian Li A10B - Finished 30/5-12

Thanks for being honest I actually have second thoughts about the logo as well, I've actually been thinking of replacing the windows with a dark toned plexi, but dunno, maybe that wil darken it too much, suggestions?

 

dark acrylic would look grate on there

 

Company logos on mods only really make sense to me if sponsored by them as a huge way of saying thank you for the help nice & loud or your genuinely a loyal fan of the brand which some obviously are so if you like it keep it, looks well done to me.

Personally I wouldn't do it & instead add my own flare but that's just me.

As for changing the tint, there are plenty of transparent films you can apply to acrylic in many colours so you wouldn't even need to make new pieces from specific tinted acrylic so would be a lot cheaper & less hassle. But to me the clear shows off the nice internal work on this nicely.

Suppose for a nice extra boost of awesome you could get some of the transparent film & do the same logo if you wanted & replace the solid coloured one with it, could look pretty cool.

But to be honest looking at it again it works well as it is, I'm always thinking multiple angles & approaches so can come up with many ideas while doing a reply & then just realise it's fine as it is. hehe:

 

Thanks mate I'll be looking in to different possibilities, I am currently deciding which new hardware to buy, the ASUS Maximus V Formula should be released in may and I am thinking of upgrading to that when it comes a long with a 2600k CPU, and also wanting to add water cooling for the CPU and GFX. So for now the project logging will go a bit slow for me

 

Hey guys

I've decided that I'm going to add more to this casemod. I've ordered some new hardware and I will also give watercooling a go

I've ordered the following hardware:

Intel Core I7 2700K
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z

Now for my watercooling system I am considering the following:

CPU Cooler:
EK Supreme HF Acetal


GFX Cooler and backplate:
EK FC580+ GTX Acetal
EK FC5X0 GTX GW



Resevoir:
XSPC Laing DDC BayRes One


Pump:
Laing DDC 1Plus (18W)


Radiator:
HW-Labs Black Ice GTX 360 - Black


Tubing:
Feser Tube 12,7/9,65mm - 3/8" (10mm) - UV-White


Liquid:
PrimoChill ICE Non-Conductive 32 oz. - Blood Red


Fittings:
Bitspower HF - Push On - G¼ - 13/10mm - Matt Black


To make room for the radiator, I've decided to remove all of the HDD bays placed at the bottom of the case, keeping only one which I am going to place at the bottom of the 5.25 bay area. I will cut a hole for the radiator at the bottom of the case, using air coming from the bottom of the case, I figured this would be the coldest air available since heat rises upwards.

I'll try making a sketchup of how I want the build to look.

Any suggestions for improvement welcome, like what fans should I use, still keeping the right color scheme

Now for the progress:

The first step I've taken is making a plate to hide the pump and radiator to make the system more clean.

The first measurements the plate was cut in were a bit off. It was 3mm too tall, causing the plate to bend when placed in its position. To fix this I took out my Dremel and began cutting down, and I must say this is just another good example why eye protection is a must when working with tools like this.

The cutting blade near like exploded after a couple of minutes work, flying all over the place. Later I noticed something out of the ordinary:





Plate mounted:





That's if for now

Thanks for looking!

 

I've played around with SketchUp from Google, gotta love this program!

An overlook of how the system will be:



New placement for the HDD bay, right under the pump and reservoir:

The heat will increase with a 18W pump and 3 HDD's placed together, so I'm thinking of adding a 120mm fan in front of the HDD's to move some heat away.



New plate for the PSU has to be made, in order to make room for the radiator:



It will look something like this:



The bottom of the case will look like this:

I'm thinking of adding some white LED beneath the case as well that will give the case a white aura




Thanks for looking, more updates as soon as I start working

Thanks for looking!

 

Update 16/4

Hi Guys


Time for another update while I wait for my different watercooling parts to arrive

I've decided to make a few changes, as well as prepare the case ready for watercooling, minimizing my work when it arrives.

First of all the new hardware that arrived:

Intel Core i7 2700K CPU, and ASUS Maximus V Gene



A closer look, me likes



Dog doesn't really seem to care:



First of all I moved the PSU, to make room for the radiator. My first thought was to make a new backplate/PSU holder, but after cutting it out, I didn't like the result, I have taken pictures of it, but I don't really see the point of showing it, when I won't be using it I removed the rivets and moved the PSU, then refitting the cover for secondary PSU with new rivets:



Before i started the bottom of the case looked like this:





Now at work today I cut a plexiglas plate (fogetting the measurements I had written down at home , but luckily I remembered correctly and it fitted nicely)





Now my mission was to rearrange the way the harddrive bays where installed, to make room for my radiator:



The plate seperating the two "areas" has to go as well, and since it has no real purpose, there isn't a reason for me to cut it, so I decided to remove it completely:



Edge protection removed, so far so good:



Red foil removed, giving me extra satisfaction that I didn't paint this, and used foil instead Very easy to remove:



Preparing the move:





These have to go:



All done:



Plexi fits perfectly







Some more rivets that have to go:



All done, looks alot cleaner as well, and the cable management will prove to be much easier without all this extra crap in the case:





This is what I have planned:



Rivets mounted:





There she is



All goes into place without any hassle:



I then foiled the new plate I am going to install, to cover the holes for cable management, showing off











While removing the motherboard tray I took a second look at the black cover plate I made to hide the holes I did at the very start of the mod. I've not been completely satisfied with the way it looks. When I did the countersinking for the screws, I used a big metal drill, and it didn't turn out very well, so I bought a tool made for this today, which I'll use instead.

The way it looks now:



Not pretty







New countersinking and foil added





Everything mounted back into place, cables placed a little bit different, to give it a more clean look:



Coverplate back on:



Some pics to show the system off









When the system is off it looks like this:



I really love the built in LED's on this motherboard, very sexy









On she goes:







That's if for now, more updates when I get my watercooling parts

As always, thanks for looking!

 

nice work! you never give up do you?

 

Thanks mate, what do you mean by give up?

 

Nice vinyl work! A color scheme after my own heart. Looking great. I love this case too, and I hate doors on cases!

NZXT's fan controllers are nice looking but the only gripe I have is their low wattage support per channel. Being a watercooler, I like to daisy-chain fans on one channel per rad but if a controller only supports 1w it kinda sucks ya know? But if you're only running a fan per channel it works just fine.

I really like their new Mesh and Mix models; I think Mix supports 50w/channel!

 

Thanks mate, glad you like it I was very skeptical about the door on this case as well when I first got it, but it kinda grew on me.

I am thinking of running the rad fans on a separate fan controller, because I don't really have any confidence in the NZXT. I've experienced too many weird malfunctions, so I'll leave it for controlling the airflow in the case instead. Didn't actually know that it had a 1w limit, thanks for that

Yup, especially the Mix caught my eye, might replace it with that, looks sexy, and 50 watt a channel + 6 controllers isn't bad at all

 

Yeah, the door prejudice comes from using the old Chieftec Dragon chassis a lot ages ago; opening and closing doors can get old quick!

Actually, the Sentry LX has 6w/channel support. I just meant as an example of the typical fan controller offerings out there having such low wattage support. A lot of NZXT's controllers in the past had such a low wattage support rating, but the new stuff is awesome!

 

A small update:

Fixed the cable mess I had going, so it looks like this now





Also received my radiator, giving me reason to cut a hole for it in the side of the case





Preparing for the cut:



Cut, filled and holes drilled:







That's it for now, thanks for looking

 

Had that case myself The quality was nothing compared to the Lian Li though, don't know if that had anything to do with it.

Ah okay, well I guess they've learned from their mistakes

 

Very nice mod The fact that you just keep on going is awesome as well!! I'm guessing its true what they say: Once you've been bitten by the Modding bug you cannot stop

 

Thanks mate, yeah once you go modding you never go stock lol

 

Now I've been asked why the holes I've drilled for the radiator mounting are as big as they are. Some might have mistaken it to be a mishap, but I did it on purpose The reason for this is that I want to use anti vibration o-rings, to reduce the noise it might cause from the side of the case. I just didn't have the time to finish it when I worked on it last.

Just to clarify, here's a smaller update on how it looks now:

The o-rings themselves:



Mounted:



Close-up:



Hope that clears it up for people wondering

Thanks for looking!

 

If it helps, I figured that's what you were up to. It's a great trick for the regular chassis as well.

Looks great!

 

Hey EEL, doors do get annoying, but with the lack of CD roms as of late, it really wouldn't get opened much, would it? I realized that everyone is no longer using CDs to install systems... What is that all about?! I am sure it's a silence kind of issue... But yeah, assuming people don't use a CD drive, the hindrance of a door, wouldn't worry them. Am I right?

 

I believe that to be true, yeah. I'm in the minority on it though; I love optical drives, but generally more modern types such as BD-ROM drives instead of CD drives. I love having easy access to them too, so a door can get irritating. I guess I'm a little more "old school" in regards to that aspect of computing, but so be it. I DO use a USB stick with Win7 installer on it though as it's a lot faster and easier. Same as a Linux distro too; USB installer.

You're not using CDs to install OS, are you? What is it, Win95? Now with USB support?